Bringing light to civil rights, religion, and politics.
Scroll down to continue to the articles and blog.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The Pretense of Science

Paul Jamieson brought up the pseudoscience of Warren Throckmorton, and lo and behold, not ten minutes passed and I find the incomparable Ed Brayton is right on it.

Just like creationists who cover their religious views with a thin veneer of science, the same thing goes on in fields like psychology and especially in areas like ex-gay therapy. Warren Throckmorton is Professor of Psychology and Director of the College Counseling Service at Grove City College, a Christian university in Pennsylvania. He is an advocate of ex-gay therapy, but he's got more credibility than most who advocate that. He's been quite critical of many of the ridiculous reversion theories out there. He's also been a harsh critic of the pseudoscience of Paul Cameron. He tends to approach things in a more scholarly manner than your average ex-gay advocate. But when push comes to shove he makes clear, as the creationists do, where his loyalties truly lie. A blogger at Pam's House Blend links to an article in Christianity Today where Throckmorton is quoted:

"Transgender impulses are strong, but they don't match up with the Christian sexual ethic," says Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. "Desires must be brought into alignment with biblical teachings, but it will be inconvenient and distressful."

Throckmorton, past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, says he has advised transgendered people who are in absolute agony over their state. Typically, such individuals are desperately in search of hope and acceptance, he says. It may be uncomfortable to tell transgendered individuals that their desires don't align with the Bible, Throckmorton says, but pastors must do so. "Even if science does determine differentiation in the brain at birth," Throckmorton says, "even if there are prenatal influences, we can't set aside teachings of the Bible because of research findings."

So, when push comes to shove, Mr. Throckmorton is full aware that all his pseudo-scientific language is just sophistry.

"Even if science does determine differentiation in the brain at birth," Throckmorton says, "even if there are prenatal influences, we can't set aside teachings of the Bible because of research findings."

It's statements like these, and a mind-set that would even suggest that facts of the matter are irrelevant compared to a mere fallible person's interpretation of sections of the Bible, that make Christians look like a pack of freaks! And every Christian who is a Christian indeed should deeply resent such statements as they besmirch Christians, Christianity, and God Himself!

"Even if science does determine differentiation in the brain at birth," Throckmorton says, "even if there are prenatal influences, we can't set aside teachings of the Bible because of research findings."

This statement sounds a lot like someone who knows the truth and just does not want to accept it.

Paul, while you are looking for evidence please review the website borndifferent.org.

Here's something else to consider:

Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and “the Father of Modern Science.

Yet Galileo's championing of Copernicanism was controversial within his lifetime. The geocentric view had been dominant since the time of Aristotle, and the controversy engendered by Galileo's opposition to this view resulted in the Catholic Church's prohibiting the advocacy of heliocentrism as potentially factual, because that theory had no decisive proof and was contrary to the literal meaning of Scripture. Galileo was eventually forced to recant his heliocentrism and spent the last years of his life under house arrest on orders of the Inquisition.

There are many instances of the Church intereferring with the world of science. We now know that the Church was wrong in this and other instances.

Why should people who are speaking against scientific findings be believed with the strong influence of the Church behind them?

Recommended Reading

Veteran Ben LaGuer

Let me finally return to Dwight Macdonald and the responsibility of intellectuals. Macdonald quotes an interview with a death-camp paymaster who burst into tears when told that the Russians would hang him. "Why should they? What have I done?" he asked. Macdonald concludes: "Only those who are willing to resist authority themselves when it conflicts too intolerably with their personal moral code, only they have the right to condemn the death-camp paymaster." The question, "What have I done?" is one that we may well ask ourselves, as we read each day of fresh atrocities in Vietnam—as we create, or mouth, or tolerate the deceptions that will be used to justify the next defense of freedom.

– Chomsky, The Responsibility of Intellectuals 1967

Words to Remember:

"Juris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere; alterum non laedere; suum cuique tribuere"(These are the precepts of the law: To live honorably; to hurt nobody; to render to every one his due.)

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." -Section 1 of the 14th amendment to the US Constitution

Never Forgotten; Sadly Missed

Lawrence King

GLBT Legends

Paul McMahon and Ralph Hodgdon in 2007

"If you want to be important -- wonderful. If you want to be recognized -- wonderful. If you want to be great -- wonderful. But, recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness." -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Redistribution with credit and link to this website is preapproved.. Picture Window theme. Powered by Blogger.